Childbirth

Andrew George: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many live births there were in each constituent country of the UK in each quarter of 2012.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated June 2013
	.
	The table below shows the number of live births in the constituent countries of the UK by quarter for 2012. Births data for quarter 4 England and Wales will be published in August 2013.
	
		
			 Number of live births by quarter, 2012 (provisional), UK and constituent countries 
			 Number of live births (thousand) 
			 Year and quarter UK England Wales Scotland Northern Ireland 
			 2012      
			 March (Q1) 201.1 170.9 8.8 14.8 6.6 
			 June (Q2) 201.0 171.8 8.6 14.3 6.2 
			 September (Q3) 207.7 177.7 9.0 14.7 6.3 
			 December (Q4) n/a n/a n/a 14.2 6.2 
			 n/a Denotes not yet available Note: Data are provisional Source: Office for National Statistics 
		
	
	For more information, quarterly births data are published on the ONS website at:
	www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/vsob1/vital-statistics--population-and-health-reference-tables/summer-2013-update/index.html

RSPCA

Simon Hart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions his Department has, following an order of the Crown Court, paid money out of public funds to (a) the RSPCA and (b) defendants prosecuted by the RSPCA in the last five years; and what amount was paid on each such occasion.

Helen Grant: The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) does not record whether the prosecuting authority is the RSPCA. I can confirm that the LAA does not fund prosecutions, including those carried out by the RSPCA.